


When a star shines

by Darkhymns



Series: Colloyd Week 2020 [6]
Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: F/M, Gen, Minor Colette Brunel/Lloyd Irving, Moral Lessons, Parenthood, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24713176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkhymns/pseuds/Darkhymns
Summary: Dirk had seen so many humans come and go, like flowers that sprouted and wilted with the passing of seasons. But he watched Lloyd and Colette grow - and he wanted these precious lives to last.
Relationships: Colette Brunel/Lloyd Irving
Series: Colloyd Week 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1780570
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	When a star shines

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Colloyd Week, Day 6: Quote day, "Goodness and love will always win!" So I cheated a little on this where it's mainly about Dirk and Lloyd/Colette is more in the background. This is good if you like Dirk content??

The difference between dwarves and humans was always time.

It was soft and brooding for Dirk, aging him along with the slow creep of ivy along the boulders that lined the cliffs, or the changing shape of the mountains, the wind brought on by night sanding them down, creating arches and crags. It had been over four centuries, and the mountains that lined Iselia no longer looked the same when he had been a young boy. A dwarf made his roots in one place, and while he was different from his brethren, he still treasured the constant of his home, even if the mountains aged along with him.

For humans, it was quick and fleeting, their lives full of iridescence. It was so easy to miss their time spent, to see their faces merged together with each client he had ever spoken with. They always seemed to wilt like roses, growing so beautifully before succumbing to the chill. Not like stone that, even when it changed with the winds, it remained standing. The humans only constant was that their children would grow to take their place.

When he had found Lloyd during that storm, the boy had nearly brushed with death, saved by the nature of a great animal, its legs twisted from catching the child in a fall. Dirk held him in his arms, and he had been so very light, like a bundle of twigs he would crush for the brewing of his tea. A small cut was on his forehead, his brown hair disheveled, his cheeks streaked from past tears, overcome by the rain.

What made him want to care for this boy so suddenly?

What Dirk took from his home was little, most of it just carried on his back, but the vows were a welcome weight in his heart, that made the boy he held have meaning, more than just the feeble flickering of a candle.

 _Never abandon someone in need,_ he had thought, taking the boy and the great, whining creature to his home. Overhead, the mountains cut into the sky, crooked, but still so very tall.

* * *

“But I’m _hungry!”_ the boy shouted. He stood up from his seat in the table, small fists clenched as he stared up at the steadfast dwarf. “I don’t wanna learn more dumb words!”

Few could test Dirk’s patience, but Lloyd was quickly becoming the runner-up. Beard bristling, Dirk continued to spoon the rest of the beef broth from the cooking pot into a bowl – and just one bowl. “Lloyd, keep your voice down. Or you’ll frighten the neighbors.”

“We don’t have neighbors!” Lloyd complained, but his voice had softened somewhat. At six years, he was already shooting up like a small weed, now nearly past Dirk’s knees. If he had been less behaved, he might have reached for the bowl the dwarf carried to the table. Instead, he kept still, fuming with all the anger a child could possess.

“Our neighbor is poor Noishe who is outside. And ya hear that? Already the mutt is whining.” The crooning of the animal (or dog, as Lloyd liked to point out) melded with the night wind that blew in through the open windows to rustle the potted plants along the shelves, moving alongside the chirping of crickets that hid within the grass.

“Sorry…” Lloyd muttered, before he shook his head. Eyes swiveled to the food before turning back to Dirk. “But I wanna eat! Why do you get to?”

“I already told ya earlier; I know my vows, and now you must learn them. Recite the vow I gave ya this morning and you get to eat dinner. No vow, no dinner.” Dirk sat at the table, taking a salt-shaker and drizzling just a pinch into the broth. “So simple a task, even you can do it, lad.”

“Ugh…it’s so _lame_ though!” Lloyd pouted even more, cheeks a little puffed to showcase his youthful indignation. Still, Dirk could see the way the boy’s eyes brightened as he looked to the broth again, where beef chunks, sliced carrots and sweetened celery swam in its warm, murky depths. “I’m gonna starve to death! Then you’ll feel bad!”

“Didn’t I make ya three lunches today?”

“…Maybe!” Lloyd huffed. “So what? That was lunch! That’s different!”

“I even let ya have a few nips from the cookie jar! A dwarven child would be full from what you’ve eaten today.”

“No way!” The boy’s stomach growled just then, so startingly loud it even made Lloyd jump. “See? I’ll be all skin and bones!”

Dirk dipped the spoon into the broth, scooping up a piece of beef along with the vegetables before taking a bite. He made sure to savor the taste. “Then tell me the dwarven vow you’ve learned today.”

“Nooooo!”

“Lloyd!” Dirk shouted, loud enough to make the boy flinch again and snap shut his mouth then. “I told ya no more shouting!”

“Mmgh..”

Dirk sighed, thinking he had known stubbornness until Lloyd. The boy would have yelled at the sun itself if he thought it should have been a different color altogether. “It is not out of the question for ya. Remember the vow from yesterday?”

Lloyd scrunched his forehead, apparently having trouble remembering that very vow. “Gah…It was like…something about shoes… Always fix your shoes before they hatch!”

Dirk nearly choked on his food as he chewed. Never had he met another mangle his vows so drastically.

“What? Isn’t that it?”

“Lloyd…” Another sigh as he wiped at his beard with a napkin. “We’ll work on this more tomorrow.”

“Lame…” Another complaining grumble from Lloyd’s stomach, but Dirk would not be moved. He had his own stubborn nature.

Awkward silence passed, the minutes dragging on, but the dwarf continued to eat in peace, accompanied by the whining of strange dogs and the soft mutterings of a wild human child. The boy had then decided to sit on the floor, looking absolutely put out, perhaps trying to hold back tears at the thought of food now forever lost. He cried so easily – _tears are the sign of a good heart_ , Dirk’s elders had told him. Could that goodness stay true with the fickle changes of being human?

Dirk had finished his broth, then took the bowl to wash in the nearby sink. Lloyd kept looking at the dwarf hopefully, but seeing he would still not be getting his food, he went back to frowning at the floor again, tracing the slightly crooked edge of a board, fitted into that place exactly three years ago.

“‘Complain that you have no shoes until you meet a man who has no feet,’” Dirk said, putting the clean bowl back into the cupboards.

“Huh?” Lloyd uttered.

“The vow, Lloyd. You learned that yesterday.” He turned to look at the child, thick arms crossed over his chest. The boy had once called him a frightening bear, but in that same boy’s eyes, he saw someone who would stand up to an army of bears if they got in the way of his dinner. “Sometimes, it is good to be thankful.”

Lloyd just looked more confused – and then another stomach rumbling, loud enough make one think the table had shook.

“Too hungry…” Lloyd whined before going to lay on the floor, arms and legs outstretched. “I have feet…but I still want food… Thankful for food…”

“Alright, get to bed now,” Dirk said. And even as the boy whined, trying to turn his face away from Dirk as much as he could, he let himself be carried by the dwarf, his tiny legs dangling from tree-trunk arms. “Got an early day tomorrow helping me with the garden. The weeds are growing in again.”

“Aagh.” Lloyd turned away even more, enough that Dirk had to shift his arms to make sure the boy didn’t tumble and break his noggin on the stairs as they climbed up it. “You’re a mean dad.”

There. That weird mixture of affection, fear, and guilt, all mixed into one. Dirk had long thought he was past feeling so much. Yet for an old man such as himself, the words that Lloyd said sparked emotions he had long forgotten.

The boy had already fallen asleep in Dirk’s arms before he was tucked into his bed. The next morning, Dirk had made him a breakfast platter that would have put his own stomach to the test. But Lloyd ate so much, and look just how fast he was growing…

The vows had once been all that Dirk had. If they could help keep the goodness in Lloyd’s heart as he grew, then it would be worth the trouble of teaching him; through the tears and all.

* * *

In Dirk’s long and storied lifetime, he had seen many Chosen come and go. Despite his memory, he couldn’t always mind the details of their faces, for they seemed to change as often as the seasons.

When the years on his shoulders had not been as many, the spring always brought hope, brought youths dressed in finery, the scent of lavender hanging in the air. But time wore on, and the winters grew longer, the summers drier. He experienced firsthand how the roads became less safe to travel, Desians moving out from the shadows to fragment an already weakening world.

And still those Chosen came, sprouting and wilting with every passing season.

Dirk had known of the Chosen from Iselia. It was by chance that his home was close to the Village of Oracles, for it had not always been called that title. But a branch from the Chosen lineage had made their residence there over a century ago, and in his routine stock-up on supplies from the town, he caught the tell-tale expression of a certain young child, split off from the other children near the school house, her form proper and her smile polite. The other Chosens he had ever seen – rare as it was still – had been few, but they all had that same, soft smile.

When Lloyd had started going to school in Iselia, Dirk had visited the village more often. The boy could not defend himself against monsters just yet, but he could ride Noishe fairly well, hands gripping the creature’s great ears. _How brave of Noishe_ , he would think, _to hold back his whines for Lloyd._

His crafting could wait for when he would go and pick up the boy, trusty hammer in his hand, its weight just enough to crush a fiend on sight. But one day, Lloyd had not come to the village front. He found Noishe still laying outside its perimeter, guards warily glancing his way occasionally.

Already Dirk was quite suspicious. Lloyd had never seemed to want to stay longer at school, as he so often complained about. But a quick trek into the village led him to Lloyd, seated on a polished oak porch at a large, yet quaint home, a book in his lap. It had been easy to spot the boy; decked out in a red (at Lloyd’s insistence) jacket, suspenders keeping his pants from falling around his ankles. Every week, Dirk would have to mend and refit them, brought on by the boy’s travels through the forest, and his own tremendous growth spurts.

And next to him, the Chosen, (barely older than nine, he gathered) with her soft and sad smile.

“Dad!” Lloyd waved towards the dwarf, his voice carrying so easily in the light of the sunset. “Colette’s teaching me all this angel stuff!”

“Aye, maybe introduce me to your friend first, lad,” Dirk chided. But Lloyd grinned, and he noticed the girl mimicked that same grin back, that soft air of melancholy gone away. But she had the same eyes he recognized from another Chosen he had once met. Perhaps a close family member instead of a distant relative?

“Hello! I’m Colette. It’s nice to meet you, sir. I didn’t mean to keep Lloyd here for so long.” In her own lap was a book as well, scrawled with characters that even to his ancient eyes, he could not fully decipher. Yet he still recognized them – engravings that he would be commissioned to scribe onto a statue or a plaque for one of the many Houses of Salvation. “Lloyd taught me a saying and I wanted to teach him something back!”

“So ya taught her my boring vows, didn’t ya?”

“I- I didn’t say they were!” Lloyd argued. “Only some of them are!”

“Ah, of course. That makes more sense.”

Colette giggled, making the book in her lap bounce from the motion. Lloyd was already having trouble keeping his own steady, one side of it too heavy with pages, but Colette held hers with barely a glance. “Lloyd said I should play hard and play often!”

“Well, yeah! You’re always going off to study stuff at that temple, so you need to play more and like…balance that out!” Lloyd said this, just as he unbalanced the book straight onto the ground. “Wah! Sorry!”

But the girl seemed to pay no offense to what Lloyd had dropped, even as the pages were covered in dirt. “Hehe, you’re silly!”

Lloyd was already trying to heft the giant angel book back in his arms. “But, I’m right, aren’t I, dad?” Lloyd asked of Dirk. As the dwarf looked down at him, he could see already how fast he was growing. Soon, that book would become too small for him, and that same jacket would need to be completely refitted instead of simply fixing a tear or stitching up an extra inch along the sleeves. Even those suspenders would need to be lengthened. Like trees these children would grow, yet even the greatest trees eventually decay… “Dad?”

“I’m just shocked, lad. Ya remembered the meaning of the vow! And here I thought I was just blowing hot air all this time.”

“I can know things!” Lloyd was arguing again, pouting slightly. “Like this angel…book thingy…” Then he sighed. “Dwarven words seemed easier than this though…”

“I’m sorry,” Colette said. “I’m not very good at teaching, and I guess this can be boring too.” She said everything in such a prepared tone, anticipating any other response except for what Lloyd would soon give her.

“I never said it was boring, Colette! Just hard!”

“Oh!” She blinked. “I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for…?”

“Alright, how about we continue this lesson for another day, Lloyd,” Dirk said, sparing Colette any more confusion. “And don’t go blaming the books for your troubles. Remember, ‘a bad workman blames his tools.’”

“I’m not blaming anything though,” Lloyd once again complained, careful to not drop the book again. But he saw the way the boy hesitated leaving his seat next to Colette, like a small air of wanting that someone so young could not fully understand. “Do we need to go right now though? I don’t have homework!”

Dirk, instantly knowing that to be a lie (and he would need to teach him _that_ vow later on), brushed away that excuse. “It’s dangerous to walk the roads at night, especially with your sloppy sword work. And Noishe has been whining for your return.”

“But I’m getting better now, I promise!”

“Oh! Lloyd tells me you have a doggie? Is that Noishe?” Colette said suddenly, standing up and dropping her own book to the ground, unheeded. “Can I see?”

Her polite pretense was shattered for a moment, and just then, Dirk saw an excitable child before him. But perhaps there was still something clever in her words then. For her gaze always flickered to Lloyd, small and barely noticed, which was impressive in one so young.

 _I see now,_ Dirk thought, and felt a great sadness then. For he remembered just then what had happened to the last Chosen in grave starkness.

“Yeah, of course you can!” Lloyd was already agreeing, before realizing that his father was right there. “Uh...she can, right?”

Dirk gave a big grin, knowing how his teeth would stand out against his thick beard. This generally scared the younger children, but he felt a bravery in Colette already. “Be sure to ask your grandmother for permission. And I’ll be happy to show you him.”

“You know grandmother?” Colette asked, once again letting down her guard. He could tell it usually came naturally to her.

“We’re old friends. And I’m as old as they come!”

“Wow, that really is old…” Lloyd said in wonder, and that only made Dirk laugh. The boy’s honesty was certainly a virtue that he hoped would keep growing.

Even as Colette got to meet Noishe with all the happiness a child could have, Dirk felt that sadness weigh on his heart. Many of these human lives he had known were sparks, burning to brightness before eventually fading away into the night.

But for the Chosen, it was different. Instead of fading, they would simply vanish, like a star winking out suddenly from the sky.

They would always leave a space behind.

* * *

When Lloyd was thirteen, Desians from the nearby human ranch had decided to visit Iselia.

There was a time when the ranch was nowhere within Iselia’s forests. Few others remembered so, but Dirk’s memory had not waned yet. A time when the mountains had been taller, less worn down by the wind and the sun.

The way the great structure was built, it seemed to have been sprouted from the ground. Walls of reinforced steel that reminded him suspiciously of his own people’s handiwork, roving swarms of crowds within, filled with both Desians and the humans they had imprisoned. In the night, if he looked past the trees, the lights from that place would shine so bright.

The world could be cruel in its existence, but sometimes Dirk questioned what sort of Goddess would allow a human ranch to be built so closely to the village, with no significant trading export or research to its simple name – except that it was the home of those with the Chosen of Mana bloodline?

In the early years with Lloyd, Dirk tried his best to not shield the boy from the ranch’s existence, once bringing him and Noishe so close as they went on route to Iselia. “What is that?” the boy had asked, not on a first trip but a third one, awed by its size, perhaps feeling the air that encompassed with it.

“A place that you should always avoid,” Dirk had told him, and he gripped the child’s left hand. The Exsphere was something he knew one day Lloyd would need, for the boy was stubborn after all. The skin around the keycrest recently affixed to his hand was still slightly red, Lloyd occasionally scratching at it through the white wraps around it. But Dirk held it then, held it so tightly, that Lloyd looked up at him with curious eyes.

“This isn’t a good place,” Lloyd said then, and still Dirk kept his grip on the boy. “There are people in there.”

“Aye, lad,” Dirk whispered, bringing him and Noishe, who even kept his whines to a minimum, down a slope where the ranch could no longer be seen. “But there are times when it is better to be a coward for a minute then dead,” for he saw the look in Lloyd’s eyes, fierce and already beginning to understand.

It was what made the work of the Chosen all the more tragic.

Just as often as he questioned the Goddess Martel, he thanked her as well that by chance he had been in town that day, buying dry food for supplies. Lloyd had rushed into the store, body so tense that Dirk felt he would rush out again through the door like a strung bow.

“Dad! There’s Desians out by the gate!” Lloyd had shouted, stunning the shopkeeper into paleness. Dirk frowned. He had felt the earth rumble with many moving feet, but he should have known sooner. No choice but to stay within town until the Desians were satisfied to leave.

“Did they see you?” he asked Lloyd. “Did they see your hand?”

“No, I made sure! They were still far off…”

He frowned, looking away. “Perhaps surveillance? They hadn’t done this in years.” Dirk paid the silent shopkeeper his Gald, then laid a great hand on Lloyd’s shoulder. “Lloyd, I need you do one thing for me?”

“Yeah? What is it?” Lloyd had his fists clenched, eyes hard, and still his sword belts needed tightening to hold the wooden blades around his waist.

“Stay here, and don’t come out.” Dirk patted Lloyd’s back then walked past him.

“Huh? But I can help! They’re not supposed to be here, right? Because of the…treat thingy!” Lloyd rushed to his dad, grabbing his arm. “Why can’t I fight with you?”

“Learn to have sense, boy! I said nothing about fighting. I’m only going to help those who need to reach their homes. No one should be outside now. Including _you._ ”

“But-!”

“You stay and protect this man if any try to rattle him,” Dirk stated, giving Lloyd little room for argument. “You can do that for me?”

That was what stopped Lloyd’s complaints, instantly nodding his head. “Yeah…yeah okay!” A pause, then eyes widening. “Wait. I last saw Colette by Genis’ house.. What if…”

Dirk opened the door then, the bell above chiming loudly. “Stay. I’ll find her.”

He did not mean for his words to come out harsh, but already he saw the familiar uniforms and helmets, masking faces that none in this village would ever identify. The gate guards held their pikes, but stayed clear as a retinue of Desians, four soldiers with one mage, identified by his staff, marched into the town.

A misplaced word, a wrong look. Dirk had seen it happen countless times in other towns. But the treaty was Iselia’s strength. Would it be enough to shield them?

As a dwarf, he could not avoid eyes for long. But perhaps there was a blessing to it, to help avert attention from those much more helpless. A child instantly turned around on the main path to rush to their home, an old man hobbled away, cane making deep gouges in the dirt. One Desian swiveled eyes to the lone dwarf who marched into view.

Perhaps the great hammer he carried on his back was also a giveaway.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise. Is it not true then that all dwarves are hermits?” spoke one. The way the sun glared off his helmet would be enough to blind one’s eyes. Dirk, used to the bright flames of his forge, merely squinted.

“A hermit has to eat occasionally,” he replied. His voice rumbled, like thunder in the belly. Another Desian shifted a step backwards. Few imagined, but were never quite prepared, for how a dwarf would talk.

The whips they held were obvious, the ends nearly trailing onto the ground. Dirk feared them little, but he eyed the mage, for he had little knowledge of those kinds of artes. What would cause a stray fireball to be lunged his way? And would Lloyd be foolhardy enough to run out from the store and defend Dirk from them?

 _Of course he would,_ he instantly thought with an inward sigh. There could be no trouble now.

Perhaps by luck, the Desians decided to pay him little mind then. Already the mayor was walking up the path, and though Dirk was tempted to stay (the mayor had never sat well with him – he had initially been against Lloyd attending school here), it gave him opportunity to leave, walking towards the right path.

An air of fear and worry hung around everyone’s heads, some of them ducking away from their windows, or loudly latching shut their doors, praying that the mayor could meet whatever needs the Desians wanted.

Even as he walked off, Dirk was going over his decisions with regret. Perhaps he should have taken Lloyd. Would the Desians storm into the shop, finding a young boy there with swords drawn? Yet even so, Iselia’s shop bore little in store that the Desians would not already have, and it didn’t match up with the markets of Luin or Palmacosta…

It was then he saw Colette, standing just before a small pond, as still as the fence post that surrounded the village.

The dwarf treaded softly over the road, reached out his hand to the silent girl. “Let’s get you home, Colette.”

She took his hand, but her eyes raised up to his with the same worry. Her practiced smile was gone, leaving someone frightened and unsure, even as she stood so still. Not even a shiver or a tremble. “Where’s Lloyd? He was just going up to the gate to bring Noishe…I asked him to…”

“He is alright, lass,” Dirk said, reassuring them both. “And Noishe would have ran away at the first scent of any danger.”

Colette blinked, but no tears were shed. That sparked a thought in Dirk. He did not recall ever seeing Colette weep. Even Lloyd occasionally wept from his nightmares.

“Are they looking for me?” she asked him, and there was that betrayal of concern. There was that realization, once again, that a child stood before him. A star always on the brink of winking out completely.

“I hadn’t heard, and I don’t think we need to find out.” Dirk led her away from the pond, and though the Sage’s home was in front of, he did not want them to risk opening their doors. There was no telling just how well they could be recognized, if a stray wind lifted their hair to reveal ears that only a fellow half-elf could identify.

Humans seemed to miss the details of such things, he noticed.

Yet, perhaps he had been a fool to rely on the mayor to give them some modicum of safety. For as he walked the path to Colette’s home, he heard those same marching footsteps from behind, leather boots kicking up dust in the dry summer air.

“Sirs! There is nothing there of interest for you-”

“I don’t see why not.” The Desian at the forefront was craning his head upwards, smirking at the height of Colette’s home. “How can a small town have such grand houses as this then? Hiding a few coppers we don’t know about?”

The mayor was pale, many steps away from the Desian group. “Please, the Chosen’s home is of no concern.”

 _Unbelievable,_ Dirk thought, turning towards the Desians. Colette held onto his hand so tightly.

“The Chosen…that’s right, I’d almost forgot.” Dirk kept any expression from his face, watching carefully as the group moved even closer. “This little pipsqueak here?”

Dirk nudged Colette to be more behind him. He felt her shake, felt the village shake with her. “Mind introducing yourself before you go walking up to strangers?” he stated.

A brief wave of irritation crossed the other’s face, or what he could see from that helmet of his. The mouth that had just been sneering soon turned to a frown. “You have the honor of talking with Commander Lee, and if you think you can get away with that sort of tongue-”

“Hey! Leave them alone!”

Dirk winced, yet hoped his face kept that wince well-concealed. That familiar shout could carry miles. _That boy. So foolhardy!_ And just after he had to clean up the mayor’s bumbling too.

Lloyd was rushing up to them on the dusty pathway from where the store was, his swords clapping harshly against his thighs. He clumsily held onto the hilt of his left weapon. Dirk counted his small blessings that the Exsphere was still concealed.

“Who’s this brat?” said the Desian named Lee. “And why is a child carrying weapons so openly? I thought this village was peaceful…unless that’s not the case.” Lee glanced at the mayor, eyes barely seen through the slits in the metal helmet.

“Please! This boy is not even from the village!” The man’s voice quivered, but Dirk noticed the faint sheen of rage that just underlined the expected fear. He had always known the man would never be a friend to Lloyd, but still it made his hackles rise.

Lloyd then stood in front of Colette, his limbs shaking, yet he didn’t let go of his hold on his sword hilt. “You should back off!”

The sneer from the Desian could barely be seen. They hid much of themselves so well, but it was obvious to anyone how plain their cruelty was.

“Maybe draw your little toy before you start making demands of us, kid,” spoke Lee, and in his words was a promise that called forth every instinct from Dirk.

Barely an inch of the wooden sword was moved from its scabbard before Dirk clapped a hand on Lloyd’s arm.

Lloyd flinched. His fear was also obvious. The Desians would eat him whole if given the chance. “Dad-”

“Keep it sheathed,” he spoke softly. His glance to Lloyd was brief. “And listen.”

It was enough to keep the boy still. Dirk faced the group of Desians as he brought both Lloyd and Colette behind him.

“Now, now, let the boy play! If he’s old enough for a sword, he’s old enough to have a nice chat with us. Man-to-man.”

“Not sure what you gain from scaring children,” Dirk said, knowing full well what they gained, having seen it too often, too much. “But it has been a long day, and the summer heat makes one full of fatigue. I’d imagine your uniforms are not faring much better in it.”

Boots shifted in the dust. One hand reached to pull at their vest. Small details, yet many seemed to miss them.

Lee crossed his arms, making sure to show off the whip on his waist as he did so. “I think there are plenty more uncomfortable things to go through than a little sun. Does your boy want to find out?” He gestured to Lloyd, still hidden away by Dirk’s leg.

“I’m sure the mayor has said there is a treaty between your ranch and this village.” Dirk moved on, giving them no room to keep going. “As far as I know, that hasn’t expired.”

A small pause, but Dirk kept that in mind before Lee spoke again. “Treaties can be changed. And I doubt anyone in this village could even read it.”

Long used to patience, Dirk stayed as still as stone, in contrast to the Desians who kept shifting in their stances, their helmets heating up from the summer sun.

“I know what you are, and I’ve lived long enough to know your treaty is not to be taken lightly. It was made during his own grandfather’s lifetime, if I recall correctly.”

Having been called out, the mayor seemed to very much not want to be a part of things at all. “I… Y-yes, that is true. My grandfather agreed to the treaty…and it’s been our duty to uphold it ever since.”

“You say we don’t know our own history?” Lee took a step closer to Dirk. He felt Lloyd shift behind him, along with Colette. Any more, and this flighty human in his charge would throw it all away in a second.

The boy still needed to learn his own patience – and he had to keep living for that to happen.

“Maybe ya neglected it… Certainly you should be old enough to know. Unless ya happen to be new recruits?” Dirk stroked his beard, putting on a considering expression. “It was for both sides to keep the peace…and that leader of yours. He seemed to be a man of his word if I recall. Affixed to the rules stronger than a crest to stone, unless we were to break it.”

“You have no idea who we are,” Lee threatened. The mage in the back was gripping his staff, while the others held their whips tight. “We could burn this town to the ground and no one would miss it. We could always use a few more workers back at the ranch too.”

Dirk’s hammer was light on his back, but he knew that lightness was not a universal truth for all. “Ya very well could, but I promise a few broken bones won’t be all you get back. And doesn’t your patrol do the rounds on the other side of the forest at this time? Your leader might be curious on that little fact.”

One Desian visibly straightened. “How did you-?”

“Shut it,” spoke Lee before turning to Dirk. “Do you want your race to be extinct that badly? I don’t mind gutting a dwarf’s ears from his head.”

Dirk’s expression was motionless, even as he felt Lloyd shake. In anger? In fear? Sometimes there was not much difference. “I know the town of Sieth was nearby, and that they were not kind to half-elves. My last trek saw what they left behind on their gates.” His next words would go over unstable grounds, but some risks were worth taking. “For even us dwarves, we know all deserve better resting grounds.”

Lee paused again. And the silence stretched, inviting the summer insects to chirp and leave their echoes all around the trees. Lee still would not speak.

Dirk had already long figured out who they were – newly picked up by the ranch to serve in their units. And many of their rank came from tragic backgrounds; families eradicated because of humans’ cruelty, or friends leaving them to rot alone in the wilderness. The Desians took in more pain and bred it back out into the world that had only ever given them that in turn.

The half-elf named Lee was no commander, and he saw the other slowly wilt, slowly realize he may have ventured out of his element, even with the small group he had been able to convince.

“Maybe…we should go,” spoke another Desian, the mage this time. His robes were pristine, probably having never seen actual battle. “Lee?”

“Shut up,” spoke Lee, staring daggers at Dirk.

“But, what if Forcystus finds out-”

A quick glare. The other Desian went quiet. Quiet was all they seemed to know, suffocating in it, fueled by indecision.

And still the dwarf knew patience. He had long weathered in the hot sun, with packs of logs and stone on his back. The Desians were beginning to struggle to keep their weapons up.

“Just a routine search. Consider yourself a lucky bastard.” Lee turned away, and perhaps no one else, not even the half-elf’s comrades, could hear the crack in his voice. Dirk had hit even closer to the wound than he realized.

Long after the Desians finally left through the gate, they still left an air of fear in the village. It lingered all around, like a bad omen. Even the mayor could barely seem to take it, shuffling back to his home on the other side. Dirk tried not to be a superstitious dwarf, he tried not to give in to fancies that led to nowhere – but then, years before, a curious cry from deep in the woods during a vicious storm had once made him walk further into the dark. Sometimes instincts were all one could trust.

The door to Colette’s home opened, revealing Phaidra, walking down the porch as quick as she could. “Colette! Are you alright?”

“Grandmother!” Colette called back, looking quietly to Dirk as she still held his hand, like she was asking permission. Since when had he become the voice of all? He gently released his fingers, letting the girl rush to hug the woman.

Lloyd hung by his side, looking to the ground.

“Lloyd,” he said, voice hard. “Are ya trying to be a fool?”

The boy bit his lip. “I wanted to help…”

“Have ya not been listening to me? ‘It is better to be a coward for a minute than to be dead forever!’ How would that help anyone?”

“But you weren’t a coward!” Lloyd argued back. “You scared them away!”

“Because you left me with no choice, lad!”

A wince, Lloyd’s eyes widening before looking back to the ground. “I didn’t…want you or Colette to get hurt…I’m sorry.”

There were times Dirk wished he could knock some sense into the boy, but all he could do now was sigh, the weight lifted from his chest then. “I know your heart is big, Lloyd. But this-” he rapped a knuckle against Lloyd’s forehead, making him squeak. “-needs to catch up.”

“That hurt…”

“And here I thought you had a thicker skull!” But he rubbed Lloyd’s head with his thumb, then gently pulled the boy in for a hug. “Stay safe, Lloyd. Do that for your father.”

“Yeah…” Lloyd wiped at his eyes, standing back. “I’ll do better.”

But the real change that Dirk saw was not even from his words, or from Lloyd’s own – it was from Colette who rushed back to them. He saw Lloyd’s teary eyes widen – and then a smile – as the girl went over to hug him fiercely.

“Lloyd! I’m sorry. Are you okay?” The fear had left Colette like water, brightened her like a star.

“I-I’m fine! Don’t say sorry, dork!”

And just like that, in both of their smiles, he saw the fear fade, retreating into the trees, like it had never been. The brightness that humans could show, undeterred to let grave happenings last much longer, was made known to him. How quickly they could change and adapt, even with grim news on the horizon?

 _Or am I just witnessing first love instead?_ he thought.

“I’m so thankful nothing more happened,” Phaidra whispered to Dirk, both watching Lloyd and Colette get lost in their own bubble. Noishe’s name passed between them, and Dirk knew it would be soon that he’d have to find the poor dog, possibly hidden beneath some shrubs in the meadow far into the cliffside. “I do not understand why they needed to come by. None of us have gone to the ranch.”

“Hopefully, they should stay away this time,” Dirk tried to reassure. “The village should now rest easy.”

“Yes…though this will only make them want the Chosen’s journey to happen soon,” she admitted. That sadness reached out, and he worried again for the young smiles just next to him.

* * *

“‘Never forget the basics,’” Dirk had taught Lloyd once (this time warning he’d shove Lloyd more tomatoes onto his plate instead of taking dinner out completely), and he felt this was the vow that stuck with him most.

The boy was stubborn, like most humans were, but he was fierce in his affection, unafraid of it even. There were many times where the dwarf would be caught off guard by a tackling bear hug, and certainly it was perfect for bears like him, wasn’t it? Lloyd showed that same fierce love to others who would have it, who could understand it. But so many other humans were so fickle, so afraid of such a thing.

Colette was like a small flower, perfectly tended to, grown in the right shade. It was only glances of her when Dirk would visit Iselia, much less now once Lloyd learned how to fight, but he saw that carefulness she took, the proper way she would speak – until Lloyd would show her that same fierce affection, unafraid, unbound.

Was Dirk truly the only one who noticed how often she would trip now with Lloyd around? Steps more adventurous, sometimes leading her to meet a thudding fate, but Lloyd was there to keep her up. Perhaps a dwarf, and an old one such as he, had nothing but time to notice such small things.

On a day when Lloyd was learning how to craft a metal, cooled recently from the forge, Dirk had to mention something else.

“Ya haven’t kept up with the rest of the vows.”

A soft clatter of a pick, one that Lloyd instantly grabbed for before it would fall to the ground. “Uh what? Where did that come from?”

“Just keeping ya on your toes!” Dirk said with a large pat against Lloyd’s back. The boy coughed slightly, raising an annoyed eyebrow at his father. His jacket, now outfitted with long white strips (again, Lloyd insisted) hung off his shoulders as he leaned against the worktable. At fifteen, he was already meeting Dirk’s height just by being seated. “Don’t let distractions lead you astray.”

“Who says they are?” Still that stubbornness. But it was buffeted with eager excitement as he showed off to Dirk what he worked on. “I can’t really learn vows at the same time when I’m doing this! And I’m already getting pretty good!”

“…That left side is uneven.”

“What?!” Lloyd glared at the molding of his work, the oval opening of the jewelry half-lopsided. “When did that happen…ugh…”

This was not the first time Dirk had taught Lloyd how to craft, but he remembered this vein of fixation before. The star pendant Lloyd had made three years ago had also been of amateur work, but nothing else could hold a candle to such sincerity in its shape.

“As you mull over your mistakes, I think it’s time for a little break. A new vow to take with you!”

Lloyd sighed. _“Fine,_ I’ll just go and make a new one of this anyway…” He turned to Dirk with a wide smile, left fist clenched. “Because I can’t give up! ‘Fall down seven times, stand up eight!’”

Dirk nodded. “Very good. Still not getting you out of an extra lesson.”

“…Damn.” Lloyd turned around in his chair to face Dirk, arms folded underneath his head on the back of it. His limbs were so much more gangly now, looking ready to extend well past the height of his body. He had long gone through three different jackets, Dirk putting his tailoring skills to the test for him. Still, of course, the boy wanted red.

“You’ve kept clear of the ranch?” he asked then, knowing it would seem sudden. The boy raised his eyebrows, already pulled from boredom.

“Huh? Yeah, of course..” Lloyd rubbed his hand. Today, the Exsphere was free, the sunlight glancing off its dark surface. But Dirk had drilled into Lloyd to always carry around the bandages to tie around his hand whenever he left home. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Many things. Just because we may not see it each day, does not mean it doesn’t exist.”

Lloyd went quieter, eyes shifting towards the floor. “I know that. Ever since they visited Iselia…I know.”

Dirk had not meant it to be a lecture; he did not even believe that Lloyd would ever put it out of his mind at all. Every day he traveled through the forests, and every day he passed that ranch. But was that place too great a lure for him?

“Then this is a vow I want you to remember the most out of them all. Dwarven Vow number seven: ‘Goodness and love will always win.’ Especially in trying times like these, it is easy to forget that the goodness and love of others can save us. You keep that in your heart, out of everything else if you must. Say it daily and you will be sure to remember.”

Dirk had not been as solemn when discussing the vows until now, but the memory of the Desians in town stuck with him greatly. _There will be a time when Lloyd will leave,_ he thought, knowing how humans were. Even being raised with the dwarven teachings could not keep the boy from who he was.

But as he spoke, he was then brought back to when Lloyd was six again, pouting at the vegetables on his planet. His expression just said it all.

“Uh..huh. Is that…really it?”

“Yes.”

“And I have to say that out loud?”

“That’s the idea.”

“But isn’t it enough that I already know it? I’ll never forget it!” Lloyd groaned. “No matter how much I want to…”

“Lloyd!”

“Ugh, fine!” Lloyd pouted. “Goodness and love will always win…eh…” He sighed. “At least vow number one sounds less cheesy!”

Dirk grinned wide, hands on his hips. “Well, now you can say them both if that makes you feel better!”

“Ugh, no!” Lloyd slid his hands from the chair, looking nearly ready to slide off onto the ground itself as he groaned. “No one says this stuff anymore!”

“Can’t begrudge an old man his favorite sayings?”

“ _That’s_ your favorite?” Lloyd gritted his teeth. But even in his frustration, Dirk already saw something else. By then, the frown slipped onto Lloyd’s face as he looked away. “And… I dunno. It feels a bit too fake…” He hesitated. “Not something they’d listen to.”

Dirk knew who he meant.

“It is for those who will listen,” he replied. “For those who understand.”

Lloyd shrugged. “I guess, fine. I’ll remember.” Then his gaze shifted to his hand, still holding the piece of jewelry he worked on. “I bet I could probably fix up the groove on this side here if I whack at it a bit. Dad, can I borrow your hammer?”

Just like that, the boy’s thoughts had already moved on. Dirk tried not to let disappointment linger, for even for his own kind, he’d let such a thing take hold too often. “Last time I lent it, ya nearly smashed your thumb. And also my window more importantly!”

“That was like one time! It’ll just-” And then, as Lloyd held up the item, a small necklace in the making, the chain suddenly loosened and fell to the floor in a shower of small golden links. The oval center thudded against the wooden floorboards before rolling away underneath the forge.

Lloyd blinked, looking to his hand that now only held half of a broken chain.

“Agh!” He leaned back, laying his head on the table with a loud smack. “I’m just carving her a wooden dog then…”

Dirk smirked underneath his beard, knowing Lloyd would be unable to see. “Before you do that, make sure you take the garden flowers to your mother. Day will already be ending.”

“Shoot, you’re right…” Lloyd rushed to his feet, though his eyes swiveled to that broken jewelry with a bit of hurt pride. “I’ll get better though,” he promised, already going out the back where the lilacs and roses had been arranged.

 _Even if it’s not to your liking, I can see you’re already proving the vow for me, lad._ Hopefully, that would be enough to help the boy grow.

* * *

Dirk was still pouring the rest of the stew within the bowls when he heard a surprised sound from Genis, seated on the right side of the table. “Hey! There’s a gem in here!”

“Spit it out!” Lloyd was saying excitedly. “The bigger it is, the more points!”

“I could have choked on this!”

He rarely made potluck surprise for other non-dwarves – a small game from his youth, rewarded to children who did all their chores for the day. “Aye, I’ll admit I’m a bit _rusty_ when it comes to altering the recipe,” he said to the three seated, placing the last bowl for Colette. “But hopefully, ya can find a diamond in the rough!”

Lloyd laughed, while Genis just turned to his friend with a glare. “You don’t even get that, do you?”

“Yeah I do! Because dad works with diamonds and stuff!”

“Right…”

Colette took the bowl gratefully, eyes looking curiously over the food. “Is this what Lloyd has been having for lunch at school?”

“Yeah!” Lloyd quickly answered, nearly upturning Genis’ own bowl in his excitement. “The stuff I find in my lunch is what I try to use to make new things with!”

“Oh! So that’s where the doggy figurine came from!”

“Er, actually I think I just dropped that one into my food…”

Colette was a newcomer to the Dirk household, her status as a Chosen usually keeping her from leaving the village. But whatever magic the girl’s teacher must have come up with to both the priests and even the mayor to let Colette go through the forests, and all just to visit a strange dwarf’s house…perhaps miracles were not so rare nowadays.

He smiled beneath his beard as he shifted the pot closer to the center of the dining table, all in easy reach for the children. Either a miracle, or just someone who knew how to keep secrets. “Be sure to have plenty more! Or I’ll have to take the rest…and my stomach ain’t getting any smaller!”

“I’ll take any leftovers!” Lloyd announced proudly.

“Just so you can find all the jewels and win!” Genis countered, quickly taking the ladle and pouring more onto his own bowl. “Not this time!”

Lloyd and Genis always did get quite competitive at this game, and despite the young one’s previous complaints, he’d take the biggest bites out of the potluck surprise. Even Lloyd was awe-inspired! Hopefully it was also a testament to Dirk’s cooking as well.

Colette was only just beginning to get a hang of this new game, gently blowing on her wooden spoon before taking in the stew. A rapid blink, then she ducked her head slightly as she retrieved what was in her mouth. “Ah, a bracelet?”

“Whoa, already?” Lloyd was saying as he leaned in. Seated next to Colette, he definitely had not needed to in the slightest. But Dirk would not reprimand the boy, not when Colette was eager to show him, her cheeks dusted a light pink. “You must have played this before!”

“I really haven’t! But it’s fun, hehe.” She laid the bracelet before her, making her own designated pile of trinkets as the game required. “This one’s so pretty too. Do we get to keep these, Mr. Dirk?”

“Aye, these all belong to those who find them. The stew makes the metal shine even more!”

Lloyd was nodding along to his father’s words. “Yeah, it’s like Dwarven Vow number thirty-seven! Hunger makes a good sauce! For like…trinkets and stuff! Right?”

“Well, ya got the words right, but we can determine the meaning another day…”

It had been years since the Desians had descended upon the town of Iselia, yet Dirk had still seen their ranks prowling the woods at times. Even so, after all these years since constructing his home for Lloyd to grow up in, none had ever gone up to his doors. _Not yet,_ he sternly reminded himself. _There is always a first time for everything._

But the sunset was winding down past the mountains, sending patterns of red and blue across the skies. Dirk watched fondly as the pot got less and less filled. Nothing could be more voracious than a child’s appetite, let alone three!

“Oh no, is there still enough for you?” Colette asked with worry. She had noticed the amount of food left, perhaps remembered the kind manners of guests that he thought had went away with time. “I’m already a bit full. You can have some of mine!”

“Nah, Colette. I was sure to sneak in a bite or two during cooking, don’t you worry!”

“Hey! That’s why this seems less than normal!” Lloyd pointed accusingly at Dirk. He even looked ready to jump right onto the table, if there weren’t already a number of bowls, pots and other people’s hands in the way. “That means you shouldn’t have any dinner!”

“Ah, so that means you’ll make dinner next time then? What a kind gesture to give to your old man.”

“Wha? I mean, y-yeah! I’ve been working on these sandwiches actually…”

But Dirk knew this promise would leave Lloyd’s head the next day, if not the next hour. Once Genis announced his victory (the boy had a knack for finding much of the gems, drawing some of Lloyd’s jealousy), he decided to go help clear up the bowls in the river.

“Even here you just wanna do chores?” Lloyd whined, knowing he couldn’t get out of the task, remembering Dirk’s lessons on how to treat guests. “Colette’s not even done with her share!”

“Ah, I’m sorry,” she quickly apologized. “I was just really enjoying the food so much. Did you want the rest, Lloyd?”

“Nonsense, lass,” Dirk interrupted well before Lloyd could shout out an enthusiastic ‘yes.’ “‘Haste makes waste.’ Take your time eating and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“It’s not a waste if it’s going in my stomach!” Lloyd whined.

“Maybe for a never-ending one like yours!” Dirk joked with a hearty laugh. “Now go help yer friend. Remember your manners!”

But he knew that food wasn’t the only reason Lloyd lingered inside. A brief look passed between him and Colette, smiles exchanged at a small phrase only the other could hear. With Lloyd just turning seventeen a few weeks ago, a dwarf can notice such glances and understand their meaning, such care in the way Lloyd had always reached out for Colette. It had made the boy rush to protect her, even as tall man stood over him, making him shake.

The boy had never practiced more harder in his training then he did after that incident.

“Still, try to save me some!” Lloyd grinned, giving a wave to Colette before he rushed out the doorway, neglecting to even close it all the way. But Dirk could let little slip-ups happen for now.

Colette was now seated by herself at the table, Dirk having stood to stretch his legs. She took another bite of the potluck, then spat something out immediately. “Ah! It’s a small bunny!”

Fashioned from golden-painted metal, the bunny had inset eyes of red, its ears laid back against its head. “Supposed to bring one good luck. Found the design in the archives over at Palmacosta – yet no one seems to know where it originally came from. Remains a small mystery.”

Colette laid the bunny alongside the bracelet and other small trinkets she had found, though it was still less than Lloyd’s and Genis’ combined. “I guess I’m not really good at this game, but I don’t usually eat this at home.”

“Now, don’t let these boys’ words fool ya. The only thing you need to do is to enjoy the good food! Lloyd should understand such a lesson.”

“Hehe,” Colette smiled at him. She was grown from the small little flower he once saw in the village, head turned towards the sun before she turned to Lloyd. “So does that mean Lloyd is a very good dwarf?”

“The most promising young dwarf that I know of. Now if he’d stop growing like a weed, he’d be perfect!”

Another soft giggle, Colette’s hands poised on the bowl, the end of the spoon stuck in the stew’s depths. “But he already knows so many of your vows! They’re different from the angelic scriptures… They…feel closer to the world. If that makes sense.”

“Dwarves live in the earth. We’re about as close to the world as you can get.” He finished it off with a grin, pulling another smile from her. “I suspect the angels of Martel just have a different view of the world.”

“Hm…yeah. You’re right. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. Lloyd had truly been right about that… “How about some tea, Colette? To help wash down your meal, if not a stray gem or two!”

“Oh! I’d love some!” She clasped her hands politely. “Me and my grandmother would have tea as well.”

“Good to know the old girl still keeps at it,” he commented. He took a teapot from the pantry, already filling it with water from the bucket nearby. “I only have peppermint on hand, since it seems to be Lloyd’s favorite.”

“I would really like that,” Colette answered, her tone just a fraction softer. “Thank you.”

The girl waited patiently as he heated up the pot, gathering the cups he needed. He snuck a glance to see her still trying to get more of the trinkets in the bowl, but her gaze went to the bunny figurine near her. Perhaps he should give Lloyd’s some hints onto what her next present might be.

“Speaking of vows, has he told you all of them yet?” Dirk asked, taking a filled wooden up and bringing it to Colette.

“Ah, I don’t know,” she confessed. She gently took the cup in both hands, as if wary of spilling it. “But he tells me them all the time! Like, ‘You can do anything if you try!’ Oh, and ‘Never let your feet run faster than your shoes!’ He likes that one a lot, I think.”

“Heh, that boy, of course.” Dirk felt that familiar warmth in his chest. For so many years, and still Lloyd had stayed close to home despite how much the world must have been calling him. “I told him another one a few years ago, but I’ll be a betting dwarf and say that he hasn’t told you this one yet.”

Colette looked quite intrigued, making sure to finish her sip of the tea before she spoke. “Really? Lloyd loves the Dwarven Vows. Why would he not mention it? Maybe it’s his favorite one!”

“Well, anything is quite possible,” Dirk humored. Hefting the teapot, he poured it into his own cup. “Just promise me you won’t laugh too hard.”

“Oh, is it like…a vow made of puns?” Sometimes the girl came up with the strangest reasonings.

“It is not that…but perhaps, as Lloyd once told me, it can be seen as too sentimental.” He laid down the teapot, taking his seat as he did so. “But old men like me are slaves to such sentimental things.”

Colette was quiet, her eyes attentive. He felt a little guilty now that he’d be letting her down with what he would say.

“‘Goodness and love will always win,’” he said softly. “This is Dwarven Vow number seven, and it is one that my own father had told me himself. The Desians had started to make their claim on Sylvarant just a few years later.” He shook his head, taking a sip of his tea, the taste so brisk and sharp. Perfect for Lloyd, who always needed the strongest things. “Personally, it is my own favorite of the bunch.”

And something in what he said changed the expression on Colette’s face.

It was fleeting, and so minor, but he realized that much of what young Colette wore on her face was a mask, even if she was not aware of it. Yet something in her eyes softened then, and she faced the table she sat in, avoiding his gaze.

“Is…that something you really believe?” she asked him. Her voice could barely be heard then, but luckily, in this part of the forest, one could hear the soft rustling of the leaves, and the eternal churn of the river.

“There are things in this world that we must cling to, especially when it may seem hopeless.” He was careful to not speak much more, taking away the half-eaten bowl from her side. The boys must have been done cleaning up the plates by now – or perhaps pushing each other into the river, if he could tell by the fervent splashes just outside.

Still, Colette sat there, as if she had discovered something so new and vast. “Ever since those Desians came to the village, I’ve wondered if…” She clutched the tea cup, looking away. “I’ve wondered if the things I’m meant to do will be enough.”

There were so many other things that Dirk wanted to tell her. Of the Chosen that he had seen walk off to never return, and of those who succeeded – and still did not, if his father’s tales were true. He felt that stark sadness in her grow, and remembered the smiles she and Lloyd had given each other not so long ago. It seemed as if that brightness would have to be given away for the rest of the world.

“We do anything we can to protect those we love,” he said. “And if what we do is moved from that love, I think such things will be more than enough.”

Colette paused once more. She stared into the tea, as if she could divine what was the right decision, the right path. “Love…will always…” Her whisper traveled to his ears, but soon she cut herself off, raising her head to Dirk with that careful smile. “Thank you so much for the dinner, Mr…”

“Just call me Dirk, lass,” he said just as gently. “You have that right.”

It wasn’t long before Lloyd and Genis came back, their clothes and hair soaking wet, but the pots and bowls sparkling clean. Colette and Dirk laughed at the sight, but Lloyd still stood proud that he got everything done despite some setbacks. The boy was able to warm up later with his own tea soon after.

And once again, he saw those same smiles reflected in their faces, turned towards each other. Would such goodness and love be enough to protect them from the hurt that would come?

“Oh, Lloyd, guess what?” Colette said to him, still giggling as Lloyd’s hair dripped water to the floor. “Dirk taught me a new Dwarven Vow!”

“Oh cool!” Lloyd leaned in with eagerness. “What is it? Do I know?”

Maybe he was just a stubborn old man, used to being so hopeful. It’s what made him venture to the surface, believing in humans, in elves, and even in those trapped between them. _Even a small star shines in the darkness,_ he thought, remembering their smiles.

Perhaps it would be enough.

* * *

.

.

.

_Flanoir brought out the chill, could even numb their hands if they weren’t careful. But as they stayed near each other on the balcony, their heat seemed to ward it off._

_“Do you know the seventh Dwarven Vow?” he asked, turning to her, a few snowflakes caught onto his hair._

_Colette giggled at the sight, so close to reaching up to brush it away before shyness took over. “Hehe, the one you hate the most, right?”_

_Lloyd grinned at that, taking both her hands in his. Though his own gloves were damp with snow, she had wanted so badly to feel the cold. But not just that; the briskness, the way the snowflakes melted as they hit her skin, and the heat of both their hands when together._

_Their thoughts ran on the same course, each of them leaning in towards each other with laughter tumbling down their throats. “Goodness and love will always win!”_

_In the cold, they stayed close, Lloyd saying just a fraction softer, “I really hope that’s true.” Even then, he couldn’t really stop his smile, didn’t want to at all. The snow drizzled around them both, long after their gleeful shout, tempered by the silence of the night, echoed across the stones. But only they and the skies could hear._


End file.
